South Asian Literary Recordings Project

Launched in April 2000, to record the voices of South Asian authors for the Library of Congress' Archive of Recorded World Literature, the project has captured the readings of prominent South Asian poets, novelists, and playwrights. The authors recorded so far represent more than fifteen of the languages of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Google goes desi, starts online Hindi software

Click here for this Google Hindi page

अब तो हिन्दी मैं लिखना असान हो गया है.
मगर सब को क्या मालूम के यह कैसे कम करता है?

Samiran Saha, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, August 20, 2007

The world’s hottest search engine has gone desi. Now you can type in English and get the script in Hindi on Google. You can also search for local content in Hindi and 13 other Indic languages. Engineers at Google have developed software that helps online usage of "Indic" language scripts.

The term "Indic" refers to the Indo-Aryan languages that form a sub-group of the Indo-Iranian languages.

"Indic" is used in the context of the Indo-European linguistics, and is not strictly a geographical term.

Hindi transliteration was launched on the blogger service earlier this year, and the latest service http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/ is a standalone offering of the same technology.

By launching its search in Hindi Google is looking at the wide base of Indian Net users, a large section of which comprises of those proficient in Hindi.

Google’s new products come from its Bangalore based research and development centre and its other laboratories based in different parts of the world. The two products -- Google Local Search and Google Business Centre -- launched by Google on Monday are specifically designed for those proficient in Hindi.

The Local Search is a tool for Indian users looking for relevant information on the web. With the launch of these products users will now be able to search for information on local businesses like restaurants, shops and hotels by simply searching on http: //local.google.co.in and its Local Business Centre is available at www. google.co. in/local/add.

To switch to Hindi, the users will be aided by the Indic on-screen keyboard software which can be installed by users on their personalised iGoogle pages. Typically, when a user types in English and hits ‘enter’, the script appears in the Indic script through transliteration. Google's Indic transliteration allows the user to type in Hindi using phonetically equivalent English text entered through an English keyboard. Users can create Hindi content and use it in any of the applications including mails and documents.

See also

Google Trends: The Great Desi Survey May 23, 2006, Mayank Austen Soofi

Google News Goes Desi - Launches Hindi News Service
March 16, 2007, Aaman Lamba

Google unveils India Labs, local search
INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2007 03:12:44 PM]

'Fat library man' bullied online

Info courtesy: Janette Coulthard

Monday, 23 July 2007, 18:12 GMT 19:12 UK, BBC
A university student has been telling how a social networking website was used to set up a group which aimed to target him with bullying and hate.

Graham Mallaghan, 36, who also works as a library assistant at the University of Kent, said the Facebook group had existed for weeks before he knew of it.

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Free Journal Access: Sage Publications

PS. Info courtesy: Rachel @ Beyond the Job Nicole C. Engard @ What I Learned Today, and Tom Wilson @ Information Research Weblog

Free trial access through Sept. 30 to current and back issues
NB. SAGE Publications are pleased to offer free online full text access to the current and back issues of the following selected Information Sciences

IFLA Journal

Journal of Information Science

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

Information Development

Business Information Review

Journal of Health Informatics

Certificate Course on "Modern Library Practices"

- Call for Participation from Developing Countries
PS. Info courtesy: Rachel @ Beyond the Job

The Resource Centre, NITTTR, is organising a Certificate course on "Modern Library Practices", which will be held on 15th October 2007 to 7th December 2007 at National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India) Taramani, Chennai 600 113, Tamil Nadu, India. continue reading

ALA ALCTS Foreign Book Dealers Directory on the web

The ALCTS Acquisition Sections Publications Committee is pleased to
announce that its Foreign Book Dealers Directory is now available as a single, searchable Web publication. Most recently available as three distinct Web sites, the information has been combined into a single file, with access points by vendor name and country (or countries) whose materials each vendor can supply. To replicate the three previous regional versions, there are also lists by region that can be accessed by either the point and click world map on the home page, or by a pull-down menu. The original three regions, Eastern Europe-Soviet Union, Asia-Pacific, and Africa-Middle East, are now six regions: Eastern Europe, Central Eurasia, Asia, The Pacific, Africa, and Middle East.... continue reading
Find suppliers of library materials from many parts of the world with our searchable lists of vendors regularly used by university libraries in the United States.

Museolog’ is a web-driven software system for cataloging museum information

Info courtesy: FN: Frederick Noronha’s blog

Museolog’ is a web-driven software system for cataloging museum information. It is an advanced tool for museum records management, based on the international standards. It was developed by EUROCLID within UNESCO HeritageNet project, and localised by the non-governmental organisations Open Systems. Using this software, initial functions of input and editing of museum catalogues are provided what has been described as “a modern intuitive graphical interface using forms and menus.” continue reading